I know what you are thinking, and no I did not put the pillow under Charlie’s head. He does this on his own.

So, as I am sitting here chugging coffee and redbull to stay focused and awake, I look around and notice the dogs. They have got to be the most spoiled rotten mongrels around. I didn’t sleep well last night because they both wanted to sleep with us, and you can see by the pictures above they aren’t small sleepers. They both require tons of space and are not afraid to push us off the bed.

Although I took several photography classes in college, I still consider myself an amatuer picture taker. My father in law gave us a nice Canon digital SLR for a wedding gift. My goal is to learn how to use it! What better subjects to start with than my furr children. From my short experience with this particular camera, I think the key is patience with dog shots. Charlie and Mina were more interested in smelling and licking the camera than posing and seeming happy for my photo shoot. You would think they don’t understand English at all!

I sat down in the mulch during lunch and just waited for the dogs to settle. After about 20 minutes of waiting, they finally started to look like their cute natural selves that I was trying to capture. They look so calm and innocent in these pictures. Very deceiving!

Throughout the growth of the blog, hopefully you will see some improvement in my pet photography! I really enjoyed taking these of the dogs. Maybe a new side career?? Petsmart does it, why not me!

Its that time again! Charlie + Mina update! I forsee this picture becoming more difficult to take as time goes on. They just want to play with each other!

Here Mina is 10 weeks old and Charlie 2 years. She is growing like a weed! Charlie was not the healthiest puppy with kennel cough, chronic allergies all on top of being the runt of the litter… We are not used to a puppy that likes to eat! She is a little butter ball. This morning, Travis got up about 30 minutes before me and fed Mina. When I woke up, she was back in her crate and he was in the shower. I assumed she was starving by her whining. She ate a full bowl of food like it was nothing. I later found out that Travis had already fed her! This little porker ate two whole bowls of food this morning without blinking! She is at least 10 pounds now, have not weighed her in about a week. I don’t think Charlie was 10 pounds until he was 3 months old!

They are becoming closer and closer as time goes on. It makes it all worthwhile to see Charlie so happy with Mina. He needed a buddy and now he will never have to be alone again!

Don’t mind Mina’s creepy eyes in this picture! Red eye correct does not work so well on puppies.

What prompted me to start a blog about dogs? Well, I have always been a huge animal lover and advocate. There is no dog or cat that I don’t want to meet. My love for animals started at a young age. Growing up in the country, my family was able to have a wide range of animals. All of whom, I felt a connection with. I have always been inspired by how happy dogs are to just to be scratched or have a ball thrown for them. They wag their tail as a sign of happiness. Years later, I now have a wonderful family with the sweetest husband and our two four-legged children. Some might say I am slightly obsessed with my furr-babies Charlie and Mina. I think those just don’t understand the connection we share. My husband would fully agree that Charlie and Mina live a pretty awesome life with us. They are our world and will remain a part of our family forever.

Now, you might ask why? Why start a blog? The past few years have been, although amazing and wonderful, extremely trying on me. If you are curious a quick overview of what has happened:

We moved away from some of our closest friends to be closer to family and old friends = bitter sweet

Last year the love of my life asked me to marry him = amazing

I took a new job and immediately felt a pit in my stomach… you know the kind where you feel sick because you aren’t sure if you’ve made the right decision= confliction

Was texting while driving in traffic, frustrated after a day at work and slammed into a truck. First accident ever. I was fine, my car not so much. The guy I hit was super nice and did not want to call the cops because nothing happened to his car and so I wouldn’t get a ticket. = annoying

We bought our first house! Such a dream. = inspiring, proud feeling

Eight days after closing and moving into our new house, we were robbed. My laptop which is my lifeline for freelance graphic design work was gone. Travis’ computer as well as all of my jewelry – gone. Charlie had a cut on his head and was clearly shaken. We found out that our neighbor caught Charlie running in the street and put him in the back yard. We had not met most of our neighbors so they had no way of knowing that we did not just leave our dog running lose while we were at work. I won’t bore you with all of the details but you get the drift. It caused me to question all sorts of things. Religion, my career, the location we’ve chosen to live, politics, etc. etc. = devastating

Things started looking up as we crept closer to our wedding day 9.10.11. We both could not wait to make the ultimate commitment to each other = love

While prepping for the wedding I searched around town for the perfect spray tan as the beds scare me. While sitting at the bottom of an exit ramp at a stop sign waiting to merge onto busy Capital Blvd. in Raleigh, I was hit from behind and jolted into the busy highway. It happened so fast, and the impact was so hard I was in a daze of confusion for at least 3 minutes. As I realized what happened, I saw an unmarked police vehicle flying backwards swerving through traffic down Capital Blvd. towards me. He whipped his car in front of mine to block me from on coming traffic. He saw the whole thing happen. I was beyond lucky to walk away. I’ll take whiplash any day over losing my life. = eye-opening

Pretty much one thing after another kept happening until the wedding day, including work getting progressively worse. I was losing all creative inspiration and drive. I have always prided myself in being an unstoppable, hard-working employee. With this job, it is all I can do to make it in everyday. = career stress

9.10.11 Our wedding day was by far the most amazing day of our lives. It was perfect. With all of the trials from the previous year (see above), we decided not to take a honeymoon. I decided that was bull. We deserved to go on a trip. Just the two of us and a couple of strong drinks. Months before the wedding I used my freelance money to plan and pay for a surprise honeymoon to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Travis found out at our rehearsal dinner. It felt amazing to do something like that for my best friend. Still can not believe I kept the secret! = excitement

The Monday after our wedding, we returned home to pack for the trip. We were leaving the next morning at 4 am. Surprise! The refrigerator had been leaking water for who knows how long. Probably started as we walked out the door the Thursday before. It looked like a sprinkler was behind the frige and our wood floors looked like cardboard soaked in water. Our options were simple; 1. Cancel the honeymoon to deal with this, 2. Turn around and act like we didn’t see it and deal with it in a week, 3. Have a complete mental breakdown and cry. Option #3 happened immediately but my mom was not going to let options #1 or #2 happen. She drove 6 hours that night to come stay in our house while we were on our honeymoon and dealt with the contractors and insurance companies. We had no clue how bad it was. They literally demoed our floors, walls. cabinets, everything. The damage was much worse that expected. We had to pay our $2500 deductible again. -We paid it when we were robbed in February. We had to move in with my mother in-law because the house became unlivable. = bad day

We welcomed sweet Mina into our lives at the end of September. She and Charlie love each other and we are hoping they will continue to be best friends. Mina’s carefree puppy attitude was a nice change from our stressed lives as of late. While listening to her cry as I left for work, I realized that although I am not where I want to be with my job, I have not made the effort to change my situation. This was it. The moment I realized that without taking a chance and a leap of faith, how would I get out of my current state? Do something. I told myself = refreshing

In a nutshell that is the year that has led me to this point. The point where I stop making excuses and saying I don’t have time or its too late in life. There is so much negativity in the world everyday. We are surrounded. I believe all people should learn from animals, especially dogs. Dogs by nature, are easy to please, fun, loving, happy, grateful, low-maintenance, and most of all so darn cute. If people had a 1/3 of the positive energy of their dogs, there would be less crime in the world, less frustrated people causing car accidents, less of all things negative in the world, and more happy people. My challenge to myself with this blog and for you is to wag your tail often. Find a way to be happy and thankful everyday. Life is not promised, tomorrow is not guaranteed. It is too short to waste it not being happy. Wag your tail TODAY. I’m going to.